Echelon Conspiracy DVD: Review By DVDExaminerTyson

It's pretty obvious right from the start that the reason that this movie didn't see the darkness of a theater for long was there are a lot of similarities between this and the Spielberg-produced Eagle Eye. Echelon Conspiracy starts off with computer technician, Max Peterson (Shane West) receives an anonymous package while on a business trip on Moscow. In the package is a high-tech cell phone which soon receives an anonymous text message with a promotional offer from the hotel to stay an extra night for a discount. Max takes up the offer, and the plane he was supposed to be on crashes. After this incident, Max isn't very reluctant to take advice from his new gadget, which then directs him to a casino where he cleans up; getting the attention of the casino's head of security (Ed Burns) and an FBI agent (Ving Rhames). Thus begins a global cat and mouse game of the government trying to track down Max Peterson and exactly who is sending text messages to his phone, guiding him. But then a twist: The government may be the ones sending the text messages, but why? Or is it a higher, more intelligent technological power pulling the strings?

If you have seen Eagle Eye, then you will pretty much know how this movie plays out after the first twenty minutes or so, and the big "twist" of where Max is receiving these text messages from won't come as very much of a surprise. The plot does move pretty fast in Echelon Conspiracy, and while I didn't thoroughly enjoy this movie, I never found myself completely bored with it either. The action sequences, effects, fight and chase scenes were all above average for what you find out there in the B-movie market these days; but it's apparent that they wouldn't have held up well compared to some of the other movies of the same genre that have been released lately.

Rhames, Sheen, and Burns all phone it in for this one. They aren't terrible, it's just more like they aren't trying very hard. Shane West does a pretty admirable job at trying to carry this film, and while I'm not the kid's biggest fan, there are some slight glimmers of decent acting; perhaps this is something that could be leveraged should he ever get a chance to make a good movie with a good director.

Overall, it was quite clear why Paramount decided at the last minute to just release this in the US in a fairly limited release; there were a lot of similarities to -the better- Eagle Eye, along with a dash of what we've already seen before in the Bourne films along with others of the sort. That said, though, it's a solid entrance to the B-movie arena compared to what usually gets pushed there. It has high production values, decent acting, some good-enough action that's just not quite up to par with major theatrical releases, and is well-paced through the entire film. If you are looking for something in the high-value B-movie genre to get you through what has been a pretty baron month of July for theatrical releases, then you will enjoy Echelon Conspiracy.

Echelon Conspiracy is now out on DVD/Blu-ray.